Since the late 1950s, an increasing proportion proportion of men have been leaving the labor force prior to the age of mandatory retirement. Recently, during the 1970s, this trend has continued to accelerate. It appears that factors other than compulsory retirement regulations are becoming increasingly important in influencing retirement decisions. The purpose of this research is to examine the degree to which career possibilities associated with an individual's occupation affect the decision to retire early. The study will consist of two phases: (1) the delineation and explication of career possibilities for older men, and (2) the examination of the effect of career possibilities on the early retirement decision. The basic premise of this research is that different occupations offer different sets of career possibilities (e.g., the option to continue in the same job, the possibilities of upward mobility or of developing skills necessary to change jobs) and that these influence the individual's decision to retire. Data for this study are derived from a number of sources; specifically, the 1970 U.S. Census, the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and the National Longitudinal Survey of older men. These data will be matched and merged to form one comprehensive data set. Multivariate techniques will be used to examine the factors which influence the career possibilities of older men and the retirement decision. Attention will be focused on the relationships between occupational factors and career possibilities and on the relationships between career possibilities, individual characteristics and the retirement decision. This will be the first study which attempts to trace the factors which influence the retirement decisions of elderly men from the structural to the individual level.